Donald Trump calls out Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz on Iran, nuclear power: ‘You may have to fight'

Mr. President, in your meeting today with the Chief of Staff of the Pakistani Army, did you talk about Iran? Did that come up? Is there anything you can share from that meeting? Well, they know Iran very well, better than most. And they're not happy about anything. It's not that they're bad with Israel. They know them both, actually, but they probably, maybe they know Iran better. But they see what's going on, and he agreed with me. The reason I had him here, I wanted to thank him for not going into the war, just, you know, ending the war. And I want to thank, as you know, Prime Minister Modi just left, just a little while ago, just left, and we're working a trade deal with India. We're working a trade deal with Pakistan. And they were both here, but I was with Modi a few weeks ago. He was here, actually. But now we speak to him. And I'm so happy. There was a deal that two smart people, plus, you know, they have people on their staff, too, but two smart people, two very smart people decided not to keep going with that war. That could have been a nuclear war. Those are two nuclear powers, big ones, big, big nuclear powers. And they decided that. So I was honored to meet him today. And if I can ask a few questions, sir, and for anyone who may want to answer, how has the travel bans from certain countries affected fans maybe coming in for the games, or is that not a concern at all? Johnny, go ahead. Yeah. No, it's not. It's not a concern for us. For the games now in the Club World Cup, everything has been done in a very smooth way. We have an excellent, excellent collaboration, of course, with the president, but with the task force in particular. For next year, the World Cup, we have one more year to work. And the learnings that we have this year with the Club World Cup, which is historic, I say this to all the Americans, because it's the first ever Club World Cup, and it's played in the United States of America. So the learnings we'll have for this, we'll apply them next year. And they're largely sold out. So I don't know. I don't think he's too worried about the travel ban. He doesn't know what the travel ban is, I don't think, Johnny. Tell me what the travel ban is. He doesn't know what it is. He's largely sold out. Like tonight is totally... I've had friends, they heard about this meeting, they said, can you give me tickets? I don't know if I can get tickets. He won't give them to me. Maybe John will give them to me. Yeah, please. Mr. President, two questions, if I could. One about Iran and then one domestically. With Iran, what's your message to Americans, both here and abroad, who are not only concerned about the U.S. potentially getting involved in another conflict in the Middle East, but worry about the potential for retaliation here at home? Yeah. Well, I don't want to get involved either. But I've been saying for 20 years, maybe longer, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I've been saying it for a long time. And I think they were a few weeks away from having one. And they had to sign a document. I think they wish they signed it now, it was a fair deal. And now it's a harder thing to sign, you know, it's a lot of water over the dam. But you know, it's very, I say it very simply, Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. Too much devastation. And they'd use it, you know, I believe they'd use it. Others won't use it, but I believe they'd use it. So that's it. It's very simple, as far as I'm concerned. They can't have a nuclear weapon. And just domestically, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley came out this week as the lead sponsor of the bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. It stands out because he's a Republican. There's still 20 states that have it at $7.25. Do you support the legislation or the idea? Well, I haven't seen it. I'd have to speak to Josh. He's a very good friend of mine. That's interesting that Josh did that. You have to think about that one. Some people agree with it. Some people don't. You know, some people say it really turns away business, restaurants close, and a lot of things happen. Other people agree. I'd have to speak to Josh. He's a good guy. Mr. President, this is important for the Iran, the possibility of an Iran deal. Is the destruction or the dismantling of the Fordow Nuclear Enrichment Center, is that a prerequisite for a deal? Is that a red line for you? No, it's just something that people talk about having. We're the only ones that have the capability to do it, but that doesn't mean I'm going to do it at all. We have the best military equipment in the world. You see that with this fight. We have planes that are undetectable, flying around like nobody's able to see them. Stealth. You guys want to be stealthy tonight. You can be stealthy and never lose, right? But these are incredible planes and weapons. We have the best weapons in the world by far. Nobody close. And we're, we're, uh, I mean, certain countries take advantage of that. Israel has incredible weaponry, so we'll see what happens. I have not, I have not, I've been asked about it by everybody, but I haven't made a decision. Mr. President, you talked earlier today about having daily conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Yeah. How, how, how have those conversations weighed on you in terms of getting more involved? You've been lobbying for the U.S. to get more involved. Has that, has that had an impact in kind of your evolution, sir? Look, we talk and I, I'd like to see everything done. I would have preferred having just an agreement, a strong agreement, you know, verifiable agreement. Uh, but, uh, it was such a shame. They were so close. You know, Iran was very close to signing what would have been a very good agreement for them and maybe that could still happen, I guess, you know, they do want to come and see us. They want to see me in the White House. That's a big statement. But, uh, it's very late. Is it enough of a statement to hold off getting involved? We're going to see what happens. Ending it as soon as you can would be, uh, would be good. Have you closed the door on meeting with them? No. Okay. So it's still open to them coming here? Yeah. I mean, they asked if they could come. We'll see if that happens. It's not that easy for them to come. They can't get out. You know, they're in Iran. And in one case, the guy wanted to come so badly, but he can't get out because there's bombs dropping all over the place. Have you seen the Tucker Carlson and Senator Ted Cruz interview? It seems like this issue on whether or not the United States should strike is kind of dividing a lot of your supporters. Uh, no. My supporters are for me. My supporters are America first. They make America great again. My supporters don't want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon. Tucker's a nice guy. He called and apologized the other day. He said things that were a little bit too strong, and I appreciated that. And Ted Cruz is a nice guy. I mean, he's been with me for a long time. I'd say once the race was over, he's been with me ever since. Right. But, um, very simple. Uh, if they think that it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, then they should oppose me. But nobody thinks it's okay. People that don't want, I don't want to fight either. I'm not looking to fight. But if it's a choice between fighting and them having a nuclear weapon, you have to, you have to do what you have to do. Maybe we won't have to fight. Don't forget. We haven't been fighting. Uh, we had a certain amount of genius to everything, but we haven't been fighting at all. Israel's done a very good job of that, but we'll see what happens. Uh, the bottom line is they can't have nuclear. And if Ted, I can't imagine that Ted Cruz said it's okay for Iran to have nuclear, including Tucker. I don't think Tucker says it's okay. The problem is then they get themselves into a thing. They don't want them to have nuclear, but then they say, well, we don't want to fight. Well, you're going to have to make a choice because it's possible that you're going to have to fight for them not to have nuclear. And it's interesting because I did ask Tucker, I said, well, are you okay with nuclear weapons being in the hands of Iran? And he sort of didn't like that. He didn't want to really, but he sort of didn't like that. And I said, well, if it's, uh, if it's okay with you, then you and I do have a difference, but it's really not okay with him. Therefore, you may have to fight and maybe it'll end and maybe it'll end very quickly, but there's no way that you can allow, whether you have to fight or not, you can allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon because the entire world will blow up. I'm not going to let that happen. You had a bit of a row with President Emmanuel Macron in France the other day, the G7. He's a nice guy. Look, he said I was going back home to make a, uh, ceasefire, not a ceasefire. We'll long be on ceasefire. And I said, why do you say that? Why would you say ceasefire? It's a bad term to use because a ceasefire means like everything's going swimmingly. We'll take a little time off. It's not, we're not looking for a ceasefire. We're looking for a total, complete victory. Again, you know what the victory is, no nuclear weapon.